Matt Serra

21:54Steph McMahon:It was most of my senior year. You must have fucked this kid up. I feel like it's a good one. It was, you know. You were a danger to your fellow students. Yeah, they wanted me out of there. I'm so happy I found jiu-jitsu. You know? Thank God fighting became a sport. Thank God for all of us you found jiu-jitsu. This was 1992. Okay. I was delivering pizzas at the time, and there was no mixed martial arts. I didn't know it would become a sport, you know? So what do you do when you're, like, a tough guy about to graduate? I look at the generation before me. it's either the tough guys are either in jail or they go military that type of thing so that's the route i was gonna go okay my parents signed the papers for me where at 17 when i graduated i was i was in something called the delay entry program for the marines okay so i was jogging with them on the weekends i was learning their the the the rhymes the songs right so that was gonna be my Did you run with a backpack of bricks?

22:58Steph McMahon:Nothing. No, but we'd go to Eisenhower Park and just do that. This little Southern guy was the recruiter. Nice guy. But I ended up... So I'm sorry, you did this throughout your senior year. So this would be what occupied your time because you were a delayed entry or no? No, I would do it on the weekends and stuff. Okay. So it wasn't like nothing crazy. But I would just be delivering pizzas and working out and stuff. Yeah. But, yeah, so what happened was at the pizzeria one night, like, I got into an altercation where, like, 13 guys, I had a problem with a guy. And, you know, this guy was a real bully.

23:43I didn't like this guy at all. I had a girlfriend at the time. Her best friend, it was that girl's older brother. So I've seen him before. He's one of those guys. We're like, hey, what's up, Mike? And he'd look at you, look away. I'm like, this guy's a prick. I go, sooner or later, I'm going to have it with this guy. So one day, I called up the house looking for my girlfriend. And so I was looking for his sister. And he answered the phone. We got into a verbal argument. So he ended up coming down to my pizzeria. But wait, why?

24:11Steph McMahon:Like, just because you were looking for your sister? Like, what was his problem? And he was like, yeah, who's this? I might have said, who's this? You know, I didn't like that. Okay, all right. So it was one of those. And he's like, I know who this is. It's Debra's boyfriend. And he was a juice head. I'm like, what are you going to do? You know, we got into that kind of thing. So then. It escalated quickly. It escalated quickly. But the fact. Thanks for this. So I'm sorry. So he comes to the pizzeria. Okay. So I was delivering pizzas. My boss, Nick, great guy. I told him. My girlfriend. What happened was my girlfriend and the sister came first to the pizzeria.

24:48And they're like, oh, Mike's going to come down here. And he's got a bunch of guys. I go, all right. Go ahead. Get out of here. And I'm getting out of here soon. you know what I mean so I go Nick we might have company but I'm letting you know we're locking up so we were locking up we walk out we walking out I see two cars they go park and now there's a bunch of guys running over so Nick's like alright let's keep it even you know they came running over and this guy had this guy had it was he had just a look of the devil in his eyes he was a juice head I don't know what he was on he had the tank top on he's like you know he had his hands out I'm going to fucking kill you.

25:25So it was just me and him. I started. I didn't know jujitsu at the time. Right. I started with my wing chung chain punch.

25:33Steph McMahon:Did it work? It's fucking terrible. The rest in boxes. I learned. I didn't knock out GSP with a wing chung chain punch. So I did that and he got a hold of my neck like this. We would cheek to cheek. I'm going to tell you the next part. Please don't call on security. I'm not a weirdo. Okay. We would cheek to cheek. He was a big muscle head. I ended up biting his ear. Well, you Tysoned him. Now, that's funny you said that. Because not only did I, I took the ear off. But the only thing that's, it's not funny, but what's funny about that is when I got sued civilly, not to speed up the story, that's when my Tyson did it.

26:09Oh, really? So maybe you were like, in his mind. I'm like, because it happened. You inspired him. So yeah, so Tyson did a Sarah. No, no. That's right. That's right.

26:18Steph McMahon:You did it first. So that fight, because the police ended up going to the hospital. They took him. His brother was there. His brother picked up his ear. Well, let me ask you a question, because I've seen ears come off. Was it partial, or was it the whole ear, like you could see the hole into the skull? Don't look at me like Hannibal Lecter, please. No, but it was up top, and it just— So it was just a piece of it. No, no, no. The whole thing came off. Oh, you ripped the whole thing off. The whole thing's off. Okay. Was it hanging at all? No, no. It came off. The whole ear? Yeah. I have a 19 and a half inch neck, so picture a little Rottweiler.

26:59So this espresso's kicking in. I'm sorry. This is great. I just like that you're asking for more details.

27:08Steph McMahon:Yeah, because she's in. The ear ended up coming off. and you know they hit me so I went one of the company pushed me and then I went rolling my pizzeria boss was like it's an even fight they hit him he's got a broken nose and you know he was a little overweight yeah like was he an older guy I was 17 he was 36 so he's not old but he you know he's one of those smoking cigarettes you know he's something out of do the right thing or something you know he's like South Pizzeria so poor Nick was on the floor so then the police came my father's was on the job he's a former okay nypd police officer so he always told me look if you get into something in the street you look to the press the charges first you can always drop them but you know you know that type of thing okay so i'm like look these guys came to attack good advice i go yeah i go these guys came to attack me i defended myself so they took me first to the hospital and that's when they're like i had to put the cuffs on me they go look you don't have a mark on you this guy's got a broken i broke his nose too i go you this guy's got a i f well i bit it and i flipped him and i hit his nose so they go well this guy's got a broken nose in no ear you know you got he lost the fight so i went to jail so i went that night at 17 i had to spend the night wearing your senior year because 17 is your senior year so this is while you're not in school for fucking up what's his name steel cage latrell yeah Yeah, Latrell.

28:35Steph McMahon:Yeah. But, so this, well, this leads to, because of this one incident. Right. It just changed the course of my life. Okay. Because the original. You were headed to the Marines. Yeah, not anymore. Yeah. Yeah. They, my, and I loved my, the guy was a great guy. I remember what he, I remember what he said to this day. He's like, Mr. Sarah, I'd love to serve. And it would be an honor to serve in a foxhole with you any day, but I have my superiors. And I'm like, wow. He's like, we can't accept me. In 1992, they could not accept me in the Marines because the original charge was a felony. But I pleaded guilty to like a youthful offender, a class A misdemeanor.

29:12Yeah, because you weren't even 18 yet. No, I wasn't. It didn't stop them from suing me for millions and whatever else. So I had to plead guilty to a lesser charge, but they didn't take me. And then any, in the future, any like civil service tests like I would take or something, I had my buddy at the sheriff. It was supposed to be a youthful offender. It doesn't supposed to show up. So my buddy that works for the sheriff's department, Larry, I go, could you throw my name in the computer to see if anything comes up? He's like, yeah, yeah, I'll let you know. Next day he sees me. He goes, you sick fuck.

29:42I go, what? I go, it's supposed to be a useful thing. I go, what are you? I go, it's supposed to be a sealed file. That's what it was, a sealed file. Not so sealed. No. So I didn't really know what I was going to do. I was devastated because I'm like. What did it say? I mean, just everything? Oh, he knew about the ear.

30:01Steph McMahon:Okay. So I didn't really. That's all you need. So it was just, okay. I didn't know too much after that. So he's like, yeah, good luck getting up. What happened to Luttrell? I don't know what happened to Luttrell. Yeah. He was one of the kids in the Army base, so I don't know where he went. Did he lose any appendages? I fought him twice. I fought him once in junior high when he first showed up at the school. And then I fought him again when we were seniors. That's when I strangled him. Yeah. Just the strangle, not no biting. No, no biting. I don't. I'm kidding. Give me one time. What's so crazy about it is this guy, he tried to sue me civilly after that.

30:38And when the civil trial came around, that's when I was 17 when it happened, 1992. I was 23 when we went to civil trial. So I guess you do the math with the years, but that's exactly when Tyson bit Holyfield. So I'm like, this is horrible timing.

30:56Steph McMahon:This is bad. Actually, it's kind of trendy. what's really funny is not funny at all but I had to go on stand he had to go on stand and he had a he's crying on stand but he's making it like I beat him up and then I picked up his head and bit him I'm not a maniac in a headlock it was the only thing you could do he sued me for millions and he got zero so that shows that the jury yeah cause he asked for it anyway but it was wild cause my lawyer at the time was like, look, comeback is... He came looking for trouble. But he did. He came to you and you should have listened. I didn't know any jiu-jitsu.

31:39But I mean, look, that's why I even tell my guys, like, look, you want to... So how would you have handled that situation if you knew jiu-jitsu? Well, if I knew jiu-jitsu, I could have... How would it have changed your mentality even? Oh, I could have chose the level of violence I wanted to do with him. Like you were a little out of control. There was a, there's a video of me when I was, and this is recently, I'm not out, I'm not fighting anymore, but I was with my family. I was about to get inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame and this thing went viral. It was at Red Rock Casino. Yeah, I've seen it too.

32:14Yeah. Well, my point is that in that situation, but explain for, well, I was with my, it's funny because my whole family was with me. And congratulations, by the way, on, on UFC Hall of Fame. Oh, thank you. Oh, sorry. Yes. no that was that was that was fantastic so i was there with my family and it was i remember being july 4th because uh that night my wife's like you should we go down to the strip with everybody and look at the fireworks and i go there's gonna be a bunch of drunks there let's just hang out i love river casino let's just hang out here and you know that tomorrow i was going into the hall of fame i go let's just chill and we'll celebrate tomorrow after dinner and so we thought we went to the uh the diner in there.

32:58And, uh, there was a drunk, it was like weekend at Bernie's. This guy, drunk guy comes in with his, with his girlfriend and she's got the glasses on. Oh, she was the Bernie. No, she was the Bernie. Oh no, she was just, and at a point she's like sleeping in the thing. that's rough. So I'm like,

33:14Steph McMahon:but why, bro, why wouldn't he bring her home? This guy, this guy was a mess. Yeah. But they weren't, but then he left for a while and then he came back. When he came back, he was a mess. He was, he left her there. and I'm just like she's got like the hat over her thing and I'm like this is hysterical and then he started just being just nasty to the waiters and just you know where's my check where's this where's that he's throwing he's starting to throw things at the people the whole place is noticing he's dangerous so I told my wife I go let's get out of here before something happens we were done anyway right the waiter was bringing me over my check and then he gets up like he gets up aggressively So instinctively, I just got up.

33:56So he turned to me. He's like, you got a fucking problem. Now look, I point this out to people who come in looking to my jiu-jitsu school. I don't point out my fights with the greats and stuff, the stuff I did in the cage. I point this out because I'm not the biggest dude, but I don't look like a wimp. You know what I mean? So for this guy to challenge me in front of my wife and kids, you know what I mean? What if I didn't know how to handle myself? That's a rough night for everybody. You know what I mean? getting your ass kicked by some sloppy drunk. So he took his shirt off. When he's taking his shirt off, I know it's not going to get better after that.

34:29Right now. I step back and get around the waist. You know, you're a blue belt now. Basic takedown. My wife's like, I'm surprised how gentle you took him down. So I mounted him. I told my sister to film it because I knew they were going to say I'm beating him up. That was smart. And then I sent it to Dana afterwards. I go, because I know the Fatida brothers, they own that hotel. Right. So I go, tell Lorenzo and Frank to get better security over here. I sent it to Dana. You know? So he goes, oh, no way. So he put it on his Twitter. That's what he's talking about. He put that out there. So it's funny.

34:57But it shows you that you don't have to hurt somebody. Yeah. Like, I didn't throw a punch. I'm telling him to calm down, you know? He's not listening. No, he's not listening. But he can't do anything. Right. He had his wrists. I had it mounted. At one point, I'm telling him to calm down. And I look up and I see my Maria, my middle. And my kids were little at the time. And she's just looking like a bird that fell out of her tray. I go, no, no, it's okay. It sounds like I'm talking to him still. So, no, no, it's good. It's okay. It's okay. I'm in control, honey. Don't worry. You know, he got a jujitsu lesson and that's that.

35:27So, yeah. So, with the power of jujitsu, you know, you could neutralize a fight as violent as you want or as gentle as you want.

35:36Steph McMahon:Yeah. You know? So, that's the power of that. But I didn't have that in 1992. No. You know? And this meathead happened by the neck. Well, and you're 17 years old. Yeah. I didn't know what I was doing. Yeah. But yeah, so that was a major, like, a turning point in my life. Yeah, because now you're not going in the Marines. No, and I didn't know what to do. That's when I found that seminar in Black Belt Magazine. And I'm like, I have to. I was thinking about going to California. I'm like, I have to learn this. And then I found out that Craig Ku Kluk was moving there. And that's how I got involved with going to the city to learn it.

36:08But still, at the time, the girl I was dating was like, my parents are very upset you're not going to college. I know you love your judo. I'm like, it's Jiu-Jitsu. That's it, we're over. Nobody, because nobody knew, it wasn't like a light, it wasn't a, like there wasn't even a UFC yet. Then the UFC came out and that was like, my first dream was just from watching those Gracie in action stages, I'm like, maybe one day if I learn this, I can have a school, maybe a challenge match, maybe do something like that. I could have a, you know, so I exceeded that. It worked out.

36:43Steph McMahon:Yeah, it worked out for you pretty good. But it's funny how life's not linear, right? Yeah, I mean. You never would have expected that fighting would actually be what. Thank goodness. Oh, yeah, I remember. But in a positive way, right? It's like in the beginning, yeah, maybe you were punished for fighting in a particular way for a particular reason. But it wound up being like what you did best. The principal of East Meadow High School used to put up the blinds. See you across the street right there, Mr. Sarah? It was the Nassau County Jail. He's like, that's exactly where your fists are going to land you.

37:22Sorry, Mr. Popelka. I'm sorry, Mr. Popelka. Anyway, listen, that guy, God rest his soul, he might be dead.

37:32Steph McMahon:I kind of hope he's not. But at the time, people thought I was, you know, going to not, they didn't know where I was going to end up. Sure, sure. But, you know, I was never a kid looking for trouble, but I loved fighting. I did love fighting. So what is it you love about fighting? Oh, professionally? Well, just, I mean, in general, I think people either have it in them or they don't. But I also think it's like one of our most primal instincts. Oh, yeah. Right? So what is it about it that you love the most? First of all, there's a saying by Customato, what's the difference between a hero and a coward?

38:18And he says there's no difference. Both are afraid of getting hurt, both afraid of dying. But it's what the hero does is what makes him a hero. It's what the coward doesn't do, which makes him a coward. So every time you fight, you have that pit in your stomach. in the mixed martial arts. Like you could, as you know, you know, when you prepare correctly, you're confident, but like you could do everything right. And you never know. And there's so many ways to win and lose it. So you're about to walk out to the, could be the best moment of your life or could be the most embarrassing moment of your life.

38:49Yeah. So there's that pit in your stomach where guys could let that defeat them. I've seen guys throwing up in the back.

38:55Steph McMahon:It's your mental game, right? Oh, the mental game is so huge. But I love that feeling. Yeah. Because it's a feeling to just show courage and show, no, you know, I'm that guy. You know what I mean? He's got the problem. He's locked in a cage with me. You know what I mean? There's all these little things into it that build up. What is your head game when you go in there? Like you just said. Your self-talk? Yeah, your self-talk. Like what do you say to yourself when you get in there? Like he's got the problem, not me. Yeah, I wouldn't want to fight me right now. That's the, I try to, in mixed martial arts, it's the hurt business.

39:33Like you got a guy preparing specifically to do damage to you. Right. Like, how is he going to win? He's either going to knock me out or he's going to get my limb going in another direction where it's going to either break or I say uncle or I go unconscious. I mean, this is his objective. That's right. So.

39:48Steph McMahon:As are yours. Of course. Yeah. So it's like, are you going to worry too much about how dangerous he is? Or are you going to make yourself as dangerous as possible where it's like, all right, Yeah, what are you going to do to me? You're going to try to do this? It's a fight. At the end of the day, it's a fight. It's the same thing I did to Latrell and locked in the locker room. But now I know how to fight. And then I get my body in peak condition. And now I have a skill set where when the fight's coming up, I'm like, man, I hope I'm going to get him in this position. I'm going to get this. If he steps here, I'm going to hit him with this.

40:20And so you get more excited about what you're going to do. you watch what he's dangerous at but you don't get obsessed with what he's going to do. Right. You know what I mean? So that's kind of the attitude.

40:31Steph McMahon:Because you're going to react in the moment anyway. Yeah I mean and then you know I had great coaches Ray Longo out of Long Island. He's got four champions now. Yeah. And that's a guy. I'm a very loyal guy. When I had my very first fight in the UFC I got stuck. I didn't have the experience because when I fought on these lower like the lower shows that Lou Neglio put me on I get tough guys but a lot of them weren't great on the floor so I never went out of the first round I'd take him down and smoke him you know and you know there was like one really good like judo sambo guy I had and I ended up still strangling him but the quality wasn't these guys these guys in the UFC had way more experience when I put Sean McCarter I don't know if he had close to 100 fights he was fighting in Japan he was fighting in the Midwest so he had a lot more experience than me plus he greases and he wears a speedo so it's very it's like an episode of cops I couldn't hold on to it cops are in speedos?

41:30well it was one of those things where I just didn't have the time clocked in so I ended up getting stopped with 15 seconds left by running into a spinning back something I would have seen now it'd be like I'd see that a mile away experience is the best teacher, right? So I had to kind of learn on the job there. But it's funny because I lost that fight. They're like, yo, he's got to get rid of his striking coach. Now you fast forward, Ray Longo's got four UFC champions. You know what I mean? Yeah. So it's about accountability. Right. He didn't tell me to run into a back fist. You know what I mean?

42:05Right, right. But he taught me great. And then obviously Master Henzo. Master Henzo, Henzo Gracie took me as a purple belt, fresh out of a security odd booth. He was like, look, he's got a fight. in Japan at the time. He's like, look, you're coming with me to work my corner.

42:21Steph McMahon:Dude, who am I? Like, really? So this is the job that he offered you? No, no. This is just him taking me to Japan. Wow. To learn. He's like, you gotta see. Were you full time at the gym at this point? Yeah, that's all I did. That's all I did. I'd be teaching for him in the afternoons. I'd train at night. And then I would teach at Columbia University. Algebra. No, I wasn't here. I did a jiu-jitsu course there. I did a jiu-jitsu course there three days a week. that paid like a whopping$500 a month that would be my rent. Plus I'd make money with private lessons. But that was my one set. Private lessons, somebody gets hurt, somebody this and that.

42:58But that was my set pay. That Columbia University gig. One of our students went there or was a teacher there and they made money for a jiu-jitsu course. That's pretty cool. Do they still have that? I believe they still do. I have to check, but I think that was going for a while. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's wild.

43:18Steph McMahon:Well, and now there's a lot of training going on at police academies. Yeah. Right? Yeah, I did something for the NYPD. And the military as well. Jiu-jitsu's everywhere now. Yeah. Yeah, everywhere. But there's like a specific request, I think, for jiu-jitsu, I think. Yeah. In the military. I taught at the police academy before. I taught there in the NYPD. They brought me in. I teach a lot of cops. Yeah. Yeah, a ton. That's great. At my school in Long Island. Yeah. I mean, especially women. I mean, they need this more than anybody. Where does an attacker want them? On the floor. Right. You know what I mean?

43:53That's where you become the most dangerous. Snap an arm, do a sweep, get out of there.

43:57Steph McMahon:Yeah. You know? Yeah. Yeah. I took Eve Torres, you know, was a talent for WWE and her husband, Henner. Oh. And they have the whole anti-bullying program. Oh, they're great. And so that was my first exposure to jujitsu. formal exposure. Yeah. And then, you know, working with Ronda, which of course was all, you know, WWE and everything else. Yeah. But my brother also really loved jujitsu. Ah. So I asked her, you know, after WrestleMania, and she put me in touch with you. Yeah. And you put me in touch with my Mark, my coach. Jedi Mark's at home. Yes, Jedi Mark. Yes, Mark came up with me at the Hensel Gracie Academy.

44:40Yeah. And he's a great guy, as you know. Yeah, he's a really great guy. So I knew you'd be in good hands, you know? Yep. And that was great. And I'd love to see your product. Does everybody know you're a blue belt?

44:50Steph McMahon:I mean, I've. Does anybody know that? I don't know. I mean, I've said it on the pod. We should broadcast that. That's a. A two straight blue belt. Let's go. Let me ask you a question. Yeah, please. Do you feel that you have to be in peak shape to start jujitsu? No, I think you can be in any shape. Are we looking at anyone in particular? I'm looking at my producer, Christian Hallor. Who used to be a writer for WWE. Yeah. I feel like I heard this maybe last week on the podcast. On who's, mine? I break his chops all the time. Yes, yes. You know? Because you don't have to be in shape. You don't. Guys could be.

45:32It helps a lot.

45:33Steph McMahon:It helps. But what happens is, it's like anything else, it's like the unknown is going to be a little scary. Daunting, right. But you just, like, if somebody, guys come in from CrossFit shape, they're like, oh, man, this is hard. I'm like, well, you're holding your breath. Right. Because your mental game is not there also. They get tense. They're holding their breath. They're using strength. But it's based on leverage, technique, timing. So when you learn the techniques, and I don't let anybody do any kind of live training, any live rolling, for at least a couple weeks. Right, right. Until they get some stuff in their arsenal.

46:04Some basics, yeah. To complete their task. You know what I mean?

46:08Steph McMahon:But that's part of the problem solving aspect of it. Right. Is like when you're because life is going to throw what it's going to throw at you. You're going to have the unexpected drunk guy in your face. You're going to have, you know, unfortunately, a lot of women are are attacked. And how do you not panic, you know, and and be calm enough to to be able to do something? And you're so used to doing it day in and day out. It's not unfamiliar. Right. Somebody's on top of you. How many arms? every time because they think some people they call the gentle arm but like you know because you roll until you make the other person tap when you get a dominant position that's what you're looking for but the ultimate goal is to make them tap when you think about what is a tap well nobody gets hurt but if they don't tap what is that well that's a broken arm that's somebody literally going to sleep so you become very deadly without hurting your partner you know hurt yourself yeah no so no i love it oh it's great i love everything about it and it's so it is hard it's very challenging and that's what i love about it at 51 i'm done fighting i'm not going near a versa climber again i'm allergic to cardio the only thing i love i do both i hate that versa climber yeah i do stairs yeah yeah it used to be called the gauntlet but But I guess now that's just the Stairmaster.

47:32Steph McMahon:But the Stairmaster used to be stairs. No, like the rolling stairs. Sometimes I'll jump on an elliptical like an old hen. Do your feet go to sleep on me elliptical? No. My feet went to sleep the other day. I told you that mine do too. Yeah, and yours do too. Yeah, and Paul said his did the other day on something like that. I just like it because there's no impact on the knees. But I stay in shape by just doing jujitsu. Yeah, well, yeah. It's just because it's fun. How long do you, like how many days a week do you do it? Well, you know what it is? I'm on the mat a ton. Yeah. And I jump in. So you just do it all the time.

48:01I roll out with my wife and my daughters too. Oh, yeah. But I'll jump in every Wednesday night, 7.30. It's the over 40 class. I call them my Greybeards.

48:09Steph McMahon:Nice. Something out of Game of Thrones. They fight hard like Norman is. I'm re-watching Game of Thrones right now in Greybeard. That's exactly right. What are you up to on that? Oh, well, I mean, I've seen it once through. Yeah. So now I'm watching it again. Did you watch A Night of the Seven Kingdoms? No, I haven't yet. Oh, my goodness. Is it good? This is great. All right. It takes place 90 years before the events of the Game of Thrones. Really? So there's no dragons or anything. It's about a hedge knight, basically a knight that doesn't belong to a house. And it's about his story. And it's like heartwarming.

48:40Oh, I can't wait. The characters are great.

48:41Steph McMahon:Way better than... House of the Dragon? No, no. Frogstown. Oh, yeah. Listen, people are going to watch that and I'm going to get hate mail. No, no, listen. I'm not saying it's a good movie. I'm saying I had fun with it. He was fully loaded. Oh, no. Oh, no. It's a tough job. You know what I take it back? That is a great movie. I like that movie. So bizarre. But yeah, Night of the Seven Kingdoms. Okay. It's getting a lot of praise. But yeah, Sir Duncan the Tall, the Night of the Seven Kingdoms. Trust me. You'll watch that. Okay, no, I will. I'll hear from you. Yeah, I will. I'll text you for sure.

49:17Steph McMahon:So good. Big news, WWE and sports fans. The world's number one sports fan festival, Fanatics Fest is making its return to New York City. Fanatics is bringing you closer to the leagues, teams, superstars, and athletes you love across four action-packed days in July. Meet your favorite WWE superstars, get your hands on exclusive merch, and interact with the biggest names in sports. Then fans of the show can get a 10 % discount by using Steph10 at checkout. That's S-T-E-P-H, the number one, the number zero, at checkout. So we've talked a little bit about jujitsu, but Mark actually told me I should ask you about how hard it was when UFC wasn't getting sanctioned.

50:11Steph McMahon:And, you know, he said that you would have a lot of perspective on that and just how challenging it was. And then I guess it's a case of, can I have a career here? you know I always fought in Vegas mostly I fought in Atlantic City you know I fought all over but I never fought in New York besides my pre UFC fights before I got to UFC did we get into the underground clubs enough? well that was it he put me on as a freestyle grappling exhibition something like that but it was a fight but that's how he got past the commissions and whatnot. Oh, okay. Yeah. There's always a way. Just sneak me on there.

50:53So they're like, oh, it's an exhibition. Meanwhile, the guy's trying to slam me. I've got him in the lumbar. Yeah. So yeah, I would try to get some experience that way. Yeah. Yeah. So I had like seven or eight fights like that.

51:04Steph McMahon:And so like, what is the, how do you train multiple disciplines? Right. So here you are now going into UFC. Yeah. Like obviously you've been in a lot of fights, you know how to throw a punch, but like, how do you train now? Because it's not just jujitsu. Yeah. And there's a lot of standing game, right? No, 100%. Yeah, I mean, I got the title at my fist. Yeah. But in the beginning, it's very strange because it went through a staged mixed martial arts where in the very beginning, jujitsu was just running the show. Right. Nobody knew anything. Right. And the Gracies would all come to the ring with their hands on the shoulders.

51:43Steph McMahon:Yeah, that Gracie train. Hands on the shoulders. Yeah, yeah. I just remember seeing that. As a street fighting kid, I had to unlearn being – they had a philosophy, the Gracies, where they were like never – this was early on. Never exchange. Just close that distance, get the fight to the floor, and that's where you take care of it. So I had to unlearn looking to sit there and trade with a guy or anything. I had to learn closing that distance, and that's how I'd fight. I mean I'd do a jab or a kick here, and then I'd get him down. so all that's how I fight the majority of my UFC career and then the whole time I was working with Ray Longo on my my boxing right a lot of my boxing I knew I had power in my hands where when I was 18 years old before the UFC I fought at the I don't know if it's still around now there's a club called the Palladium in Manhattan yeah and is it still there I don't know but I remember the Palladium but this was when I was 18 years old yeah and I fought in something called the Tough Man Contest.

52:46You ever see those? Oh my goodness. You fight three times in one day, it's really just this was the worst concussion I ever got. I never even sparred a day in my life. But my buddy, my buddy Jim McCluskey, he was a boxer and he goes look, just stand, this way, just stand sideways so you're less of a target. Alright. So I went in there and ended up knocking out I remember they announced, Mr. T was the referee by the way. Really? Yes, Mr. T was the referee. Wow. And they even showed a clip of it on him.

53:14Steph McMahon:I was just writing about Mr. T yesterday because I was working on my Hall of Fame speech. Oh, really? Yeah, and Mr. T I met when I was a kid because he wrestled, you know, in WrestleMania. That's wild. And my mom had to make dinner. I don't think I'm going to have it in the speech, so I'll tell the story now. And she didn't like liver, and that's what Mr. T wanted to have for dinner. So it was like this whole thing. He loved liver, apparently. And when he came over, he brought me, and again, I'm like seven or eight years old, and he brings me all this merch. all this I love Mr. T merch you know like the pins were big back then and it was the big red heart and I love Mr.

53:49Steph McMahon:T like I love New York and it was t-shirts and all that stuff and then Mr. T was inducted in our hall of fame however long ago and he did the same thing to my daughters. Isn't that so funny? That is so funny. He was a nice guy. So he was the ref? Not the MC. No he was there. He was just there. Whatever. Yeah. He was a nice guy. I remember Yeah, yeah, he's a great guy. But I beat two guys and then I lost my third. I made it through, but I had a concussion. To this day, I thought my jaw was broke. I think it was, but they didn't diagnose it at that. You didn't get an x-ray? I believe I did. They didn't see it?

54:28But to this day. That's loud. It was out of whack. I know, I grossed out my kids with that. One more time. So yeah, it's crazy. My thing was like, I want to go eat pizza. I'm like, I can't bite. but anyway so I knew I had some power because I knocked out a couple guys in that and I never even sparred before right so Longo and then so then I would always look to fight still the same way I was fighting using my trying to just utilize my jiu jitsu because that's what I was you know that's what I was the most skilled at yeah and I went over and the UFC picked me up after I had a really good run over in Abu Dhabi there was an Abu Dhabi jiu jitsu tournament that's the biggest grappling tournament and it's still around.

55:14It's very prestigious and I made a name for myself over there. Abu Dhabi. No, no, no. The tournament. It's like the ADCC. ADCC, yes. Okay. So I did really well over there and that's when they picked me up. So I didn't really clock the time in with the stand-up but I was doing it on the job, you know? Yeah. And my jiu-jitsu was handling everything. You know, I was doing well, you know? And then I remember I tore a meniscus and then I had to go through like a whole camp and I couldn't really do any takedowns. So I did just so much boxing. He would take me, I ended up saying promoter, Lou Neglia.

55:48He'd take me to his school in Brooklyn, Ray Longo, and I'd spar with his guys. And it really just leveled me up. And then so I started getting that in the arsenal. So yeah, you have to be well-rounded. But I was still, if you're good enough in one area and you can get it there, it was working for me, jiu-jitsu.

56:05Steph McMahon:So how did you beat George St. Pierre? See, that was, yeah. That was a good day in the office. Yeah. It was better than the rematch. You don't want to watch the rematch. But no, what happened with that is, you know, I got on something called The Ultimate Fighter, season four. See, now, usually The Ultimate, and this was, this did want this for me, because usually The Ultimate Fighter is for guys to break into the UFC, right? So season number four, the premise was, it's guys that were in the UFC a bit, but never got to the title. It's like the comeback, it's their second shot at glory, that type of thing.

56:40you know so they asked me to be a part of it you know so i jumped on it what i loved about it was i was fighting on cards where guys that were in the first season they were jumping on they were starting to fight on the same cards as me and these guys are getting all the attention because guys people got to know them right because they got the camera in the face yeah so all sudden these guys are everybody's running up to them and you know you get kind of bitter when you're in the sport a little bit right you know i've been fighting murderers for how long now and these guys getting all the attention they're fresh off a show so they asked me if i'd do it i'm like hell yeah i'll do it so the winner the premise was the you know it's a tournament it's an eight-man tournament you win you advance if you lose you know uh you're out but if you win the whole tournament you win three fights you get a shot at the title that was the whole premise of the show so i went in the house and i looked at it like you know i knew i was teaching jujitsu I had my schools but I'm like you know what I put no pressure on me and how old were you?

57:43I was 31 so I just got engaged at the time and this was huge because at the time my wife was going to be a school teacher and then one day, do you ever have to go to pre-cana? before you get married? mine was a little different though

58:02Steph McMahon:we did it one on one with the priest we were able to do that We took him to dinner. We took him to dinner and we had to get him this particular bottle of wine from Italy or something that he really wanted. So we did. We did all this stuff and he moves us forward and whatever and then we're about to move forward with the ceremony and then we found out he was excommunicated for all different kinds of things. So what did you have to do? get another bottle of wine. Yeah, but that was the story. I recommend, though, if that's the way to do it. That's the way to do it. Yeah, no, it was great. You got to go to people's houses.

58:48Yeah. Really? I thought it was like a class. It is, but it's like a bunch of different couples and the people that are hosting it are just oh, man, I don't want to hang out with it. I mean, I like people, but I don't want to hang out with it. I don't mean either. I'm a hermit. I don't like to go anywhere. So I'm sitting there with my, you know, my fiancee at the time. And we're just like, oh, man, this is brutal. So after one of those, we're at the Colony Diner. And I was about to go into this Ultimate Fighter house. Now, if you win this show, you get a decent amount of money. You get some nice money.

59:21And you get a shot at the title. It's big. So she's going to, you know, when we're sitting down, like, I was all set. We got engaged. and she's telling me like look you know I you know I will be a teacher and everything but I would really love to be a stay at home mom but you know I will you know work if I need to so I'm like ah shit this is just more pressure

59:49Steph McMahon:now I go this is only going to work if I win the show because the schools do okay but Long Island is expensive you know what I mean so that puts a little bit more pressure I go look this is the deal I go So I go, you know, we'll see what happens, you know. So I go into the house, but I had the mindset of, look, worst case scenario, I'm looking at this like a six-week training camp where if I do lose a fight, at least people might get to know me. I'll get more students from school. Right, right. Yeah, sure. You could capitalize on the brand. So I tried to look at it like that. Yes, I looked at it like that.

1:00:23But it worked out. I got revenge on the guy that was in the Speedo. Yeah. He wore the Speedo again, greasy as ever. but I ended up beating him. Shoney Carter, I got my revenge. And then I beat Pete Spratt, a buddy of mine now. And then I got to the finals with another friend of mine, Chris Lytle, I ended up beating him. And then I got me the shot at George. So that worked out great. Yeah. You know what I mean? And then I knew already that the fact that with all the money I got from that, now I'm getting another nice paycheck for fighting for the title. She could stay home. Yeah. So I already won.

1:00:56Yeah. That's why in the biggest, if I'm fighting a guy that's, you know, supposed to be destroying me, it was a huge underdog in his fight. I was skipping to the cage. She could stay home. I'm going to go have a fist fight with some Canadians. Let's go. I'm high-fiving people. This is nothing, you know. But I felt, and I had an ace up my sleeve because up until that point, I was that jiu-jitsu guy. even the way I fought on the show, I would still utilize my jiu-jitsu, use my strikes to get there, and either submit him or beat him up on the floor, that type of thing. But when I fought him, I knew.

1:01:34He fought better wrestlers than me. Not better straight jiu-jitsu guys, I'd say, but guys that are better at getting it to the floor, and bigger guys. Before that, I fought half my fights at 155. I'm not a true 170. I'm stocky, but I'm also 5 '6". I mean, I was up to St. Pierre's nipples. I mean, he's, these guys, so it's like, it fit into the whole underdog thing. Yeah, no kidding. So, I was a, so it's like, he fought guys like Matt Hughes, Sean Shirk, Frank Trigg, bigger, better wrestlers. So, I'm like, if my game plan in this fight is to try to get him down, one, that's going to be hard, and that's exhausting, and then I got to keep him down, he's explosive.

1:02:15I'm taking my chances on the feet. That was the game plan from day one. We're going to stand with him. And he never thought you would have done that. He never thought I would do that. Nobody thought. And they're right. I should have been that underdog if they're assuming that I was going to have that game plan. Right, right. That wouldn't be the best game plan. But he was knocking guys out standing up. And he's a bigger guy. They didn't think he's got the reach and all that stuff. Right. Listen. So how were you able to do it? Well, I have a very, very good coach with Ray Longo. And he had even just neighborhood kids feeding me.

1:02:49I mean, I had some good sparring, brought in some Golden Glove guys, and I had some good guys I'd be working with. But mostly kids around Long Island from the school, he'd have them feeding me exactly the stuff that George would be doing. He's doing the high kick. He's doing the low kick. He does this. And it was so crazy.

1:03:08Steph McMahon:And were you sparring with guys about his size too? Yeah. Everybody's taller than me, but yeah. So I'm used to fighting taller guys. But, you know, I was, you know, Longo really made me believe in it. Like, there's one thing to have the skill set. But when you have to go out there and pull the trigger with this guy, he made me really believe. He goes, look, he goes, look what you landed on Dan today with the 16-ounce gloves you had him spinning. He goes, imagine that with the four-ounce gloves. What do you think is going to happen? He goes, you're doing it. He's like, you know, so the fight felt like I was in the Matrix.

1:03:39Like, I was seeing everything. It was a real good night. Like, I felt, I was supposed to fight him at a certain date. And then he got pushed back another few months because something happened with him. He couldn't do it for some reason. So I had another six months of just preparing for him. Right. And one, he didn't know I was going to stand with him. And by the time he knew that was the game plan, it was kind of too late. There's ways to beat guys, obviously, tall. And look at Mike Tyson. Yeah. Like Mike Tyson would say about the reach advantage. You get close enough, that's a disadvantage, you know.

1:04:13So Longo would have me coming in. Like, if I'm trying to... If I fight him and I leave my arm out like this, it's one thing. But if I'm like an armadillo coming up like a, where's my chin? Where's my head? I'd come in behind that punch. One, two, three. Come in behind that lead hand. The second I'd feel anything, I'd lower my level and I'd start climbing that ladder. I'd be working a lot to his body. Can you talk about climbing the ladder? Well, basically I'd start low and end high. So I'd start at body, body, head. Body, body, head. That type of thing. Or sometimes just come in body. Come in body.

1:04:45Like, so I was doing that and sparring all the time. I'd use my double, triple jab to close the distance. And it was working. And he just didn't expect it. No, he didn't expect it. I was landing the better strikes. You know, even landing the... And you're a hard puncher. Yeah, he hit pretty hard. Thank goodness. And so, yeah, so I ended up... It's funny because you learn... Going into the ultimate fighter, it's guys coming off a loss. So the fight that I had, that meniscus thing, it was a couple weeks before I got the call but I'm like look I could still jog I could still do my cardio that way but it's not the same thing as the wrestling you need to do that so I ended up getting gassed in that fight versus a very tough judo player named Carol Parisian and I laid him down with a right hand in the opening seconds he weathered it my endurance wasn't where it should be for reasons I got to show some, if you watch that fight you'll see some nice jujitsu escapes I was so gassed that last round.

1:05:42He's getting me in an arm lock at the very last second. Boom, I used my escape. It ended with me on top of him because I used my jujitsu to survive. But I ended up losing that fight. But because I did so much stand-up sparring for that fight, I just felt so, I felt just another level. So it was almost like that. You felt like, yeah, you were at your best, your physical best and mental best. And it was funny because that was the first fight my father-in-law came to see. I was engaged at the time. What? Great, great fight for him. Ciro, you know, he's right off the boat from Italy. After that, I'm on the boardwalk.

1:06:18First thing I say to all my students today, I'm like, all right, if you guys all leave me for a judo school, you're all a bunch of pricks. You know what I mean? I know what happened. And I see Ciro, he's like, why you get tired? I go, I don't know. Why? I don't know. But it's funny, if I didn't lose that fight, I might have been rushed to a title shot. And then you wouldn't have been ready. I didn't even ask to even go back up in weight. I was fighting at 155 winning. They go, look, we have Carol Parise at 170. And I thought it'd be a fun fight because he's got a good skill set. I wanted to use my jiu-jitsu versus judo.

1:06:51But I had that unfortunate thing and he ended up getting the win. But it led to that ultimate fighter.

1:06:57Steph McMahon:And do you think his weight, like when someone's heavier than you, does it blow you up more? Say it again? When someone's heavier than you, and does it blow you up? your wind? Is it harder? Get me tired more? You can't breathe. Well. Because you said you weren't in shape. At 1.755, I'm suplexing guys. You know what I mean? I'm a big 155-er. But I'm not a... Most guys at 170 are cutting from weight heavier. So they're a lot bigger than me. So I have a skill set with my jiu-jitsu where I can fight off my back. I can hang with those guys. I have plenty of winds at 170. Obviously, I won that tournament with all true welterweights.

1:07:39And then George, of course. I have some good wins at welterweight because of my skill set. But you'd probably want to, if it was up to me, they asked me, I would have stayed at 155. I'm not going back up. But I knew I could compete at 170. But it wasn't my desire to go up there. I'm glad I did. It worked out. But yeah, it wasn't like I was seeking to do that.

1:08:01Steph McMahon:How important is it to learn to lose? and what do you learn when you lose? Well. Not that you did that often. No, no, I have my share of losses for sure. Yeah, like, you know, accountability is one. Don't, you know, there's a lot of people going to try to make you feel better and say it happened because of this. Wait, this guy started, and you're like, yeah, that's right. It's because of him. Right, it's not me. No, you're the guy in there. You got to take accountability about it. And how does that translate to life? Well. because I don't think a lot of people take accountability. Yeah, I mean, it's...

1:08:38Longo would often say the ring, the cage, is like, you can't hide who you are in there. Like, that's the truth. How you act in there is how you would act in life. I don't know if this is the same answer here, but same what you had. No, it's great, though. But he would just say, like, you know, if a guy's taking a cheap shot, if a guy tries to go hard on one round, hey, listen, I gotta take the next round off. You show a lot of your character. You can't hide who you really are in it. Yeah. That might have been an ADD moment. Where did that come from? No, no. Did I ask you a question? No, no.

1:09:09Steph McMahon:I asked about the importance of accountability and how that applies in life. Yeah, because you could just pass the buck or say it's because of this or because of that. But the biggest thing I felt when I lost the fight, how I felt personally, it was like I had an itch that I had to scratch. I had to get back in there and beat someone else up. I'm like, look, to make me feel better, I'm going to have to get back in there. And so what was, did you like rewatch the fights? Do you analyze it? Do you see what you did that you thought you needed to change or correct? Or what's your process? Yeah. Like, look, there's always, when you have fights you lost, like you could know in your heart why you did it.

1:09:46But that doesn't mean you're going to start yelling at it. You could have a rough camp, some camps. It's hard to get there in one piece. It's probably similar to pro wrestling. Well, yeah, it's constant. Yeah, you're constantly. the training camps are rough you know so you could know in your heart like man or just feel like the what ifs could kill you i don't have any regrets right right yeah what ifs are terrible like well what if i didn't have that meniscus right what if i didn't have this or if i didn't move into the right yeah exactly what if i didn't run into that spinning back fist yeah so you can't you just got to let it go and just move on you know you can't let it you know you can't let it haunt you so i don't have any fights that keep me up at night i'm going to ask you this a different

1:10:27Steph McMahon:way okay what are some of the most important lessons that you teach your daughters uh that i teach my daughters i try to set a good example on like i'll show like certain fights that i lost and i had to bounce back from perseverance you know what i mean um sometimes i'll give examples of you don't know the worst night could lead to the best thing that could happen to you when something you sometimes you don't know why something happens and you're like, why couldn't I have won this? But it could lead to something better that you just don't know yet. I mean, what we talked about today, I had some devastating things in my life where, man, I got into that one fight.

1:11:08I don't believe my dream of going to the special forces. What am I going to do now? It led to the best thing ever. So, I mean, I lost that Carol Parisean fight. Oh, my goodness. All my students are here. you know and then it led to the ultimate fighter which led to the title which went to the hall of fame so it's like i i i i let them know like you know you got to see how things play out don't just get too upset about this and that but i don't know i still don't know if that answered your question

1:11:39Steph McMahon:no no it does i mean you know you know i think about because i there's a lot of values and principles in jujitsu that I think apply, you know, to real life. Oh yeah. And that's originally why I kind of got into it was for my girls. I wanted them to do it for self-defense because they're getting older, they're going to college. Like I want them to know what to do. Should God forbid they ever be in a bad situation. 100%. And, but I'm the one who wound up falling in love with it. That's so great. That's so great. And, uh, and my middle daughter Murphy does it a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, my youngest has done it like twice and is convinced she knows how to do it all already.

1:12:20Steph McMahon:That's so funny. Yeah. But you enjoy it. How many days a week do you do it? Three, three days a week now. Oh, that's great. But I've just leveled up to three. That's so great. But I just, I love it. I really do. You do it, you're learning a technique and then you're trying to apply it while you're rolling live. Yeah. You know? Rolling's my favorite. So much fun. Yeah. Yeah. But I get so frustrated because I know I don't know. Like I'll be in a situation, I'm like, I know I can do something. Yeah. What can I do? what can I do? And then it's already, the moment's gone. But then you'll, but then we talk about it.

1:12:50Steph McMahon:Yeah, exactly. And then we work on it. Yeah. This there, this here. Yep. Yeah. No, no, it's great. My wife, my three daughters, my, my oldest is pretty much taking up the mantle. She's, she got our first kickboxing match at 16. She just turned 17 recently, but yeah, she had a kickboxing match. She had a jujitsu matches, super fights, tournaments. She competed at Madison square garden on. Wow. And also great. Lou Neglia. Yeah. Yeah. he's the same promoter for my daughter you're kidding and also my wife and my wife this whole time about her being in the school teacher she never threw a punch she was straight Adrian she was she looked like Marissa Tomei from My Cousin Beginning but very quiet she would tell me before she'd go into my jiu-jitsu school with a plate of raviolis for me and stuff.

1:13:43She would be waiting in the car for a half an hour because of her anxiety. Now, let's fast forward. After my first daughter, she wanted to lose some weight. She started doing kickboxing. After each kid, she fell in love with the kickboxing, kind of like you with jiu-jitsu. At 36, she took a kickboxing fight. She went she won a kickboxing title at 40, her last one at 41. That's awesome. She had an MMA fight at 40. And she was a blue belt the girl was a purple belt but she also had really good stand up my wife right she beat up the purple she beat up the girl from Virginia so my wife yeah straight savage now she's a purple belt now about to be brown she's good wow and it is a crazy transformation that I never saw coming so explain explain

1:14:35Steph McMahon:like how did it change you said she went from being the person who was waiting 30 minutes because she had anxiety to the person who had an MMA fight at 40. Her last fight, she had a boxing match at 42, just recently. She's 42 now. She had a, how many months ago? Was that six months ago? She got her nose broke during it. Still won the fight. Tough girl from Canada. This girl, Amber. Tough girl. Nice girl, too. And she didn't stop. She broke it at the end of it. She had a great last fight. But I'll tell you, now when I teach my gray beards on 7.30 on Wednesday nights on uh she teaches the kickboxing class right next really number two and three is a kickboxing i'm teaching on mat number one and your daughters did you ever coach your daughters oh 100 and then has is she now coaching your daughters at all oh she oh no she coaches she's she's my angelina's striking coach okay so she does so when my daughter had her first kickboxing match at the westbury space theater and it was in a it was in a cage because it was an amazing event too.

1:15:43So, uh, it's me and my wife cornering her, you know, which is wild.

1:15:47Steph McMahon:Are you the only parents like that? I don't know how many, I don't know. Yeah, I haven't heard dual parent coaches. Yeah. So, she came back after the first round, my daughter, and also my coach Ray Longo's holding for her too, which makes me almost sad. Amazing. And it's wild, you know? And gives her way more compliments than he ever gave her. She deserves it more. She loves it so much. And she came back after that first round. She came back to the corner. And she sat down. She goes, I love this. Oh my goodness. She's so calm. You're like, yeah, that's my girl. It's so great. It's so great. She got nerves of steel.

1:16:29That's awesome. I think she gets a lot of it from dance too because she left dance to pursue this but she was dancing. She's like two or three years old, one of those things. My middle daughter Maria is still doing it and killing it with that. She does jiu-jitsu too. also. They all do, my girls. But Angie actually left. She was actually competing, running for title, going to this tournament. Competition. Competition. Everything to me is tournaments and fighting. But yeah, she went from that. So she's used to being on the spotlight with the dancing. Yeah. This and that.

1:17:00Steph McMahon:Well, body control and athleticism and everything. She loves it. She loves this so much more. Yeah. I was hoping she might just stick to the jiu-jitsu. Have you asked her why? She just loves it. She loves jujitsu. Does she love the contact? Does she love the problem solving? You know what's really amazing? This was really was like almost like philosophical. I'm like, wow. After one of my first jujitsu tournaments, she goes, you know what I love about this? Is that with dance, it's choreographed, but when I go out, when I compete in this, I get to choreographed anything. She's in control. Like, in other words.

1:17:40Yeah. It's not someone else's moves.

1:17:42Steph McMahon:It's hers. Her canvas. She's a true artist. She gets to make the painting. Yeah. Yeah. So she hit me with that. I'm like, I don't like that. Yeah. Good. That's pretty amazing. And she just loves the feel. She loves the. And she's a little bit of like a stronger girl. Yeah. So she feels like sometimes in the dance community, they want the little pixies running around. Right. You know, even though she was. And she was always super technical. Yeah. But because she's a little stronger, I don't think she was getting as much love. You know, Misty Copeland struggled with that as a ballerina. And she was a little more muscular.

1:18:13Steph McMahon:Yeah. And, yeah, she struggled with that a lot. It's amazing. And she got the right temperament for it. I remember one time in the kids' class, she was 13. She was going with some 14-year-old boy. And she got him in a modified clock choke. right now I should laugh but now picture this now I have a decent sized school so I'm on mat number three there's other two mats here and there's a kids class in the cage right to the right there's the women's class going on and I got a bunch of parents watching so my kid now if you fall asleep it happens that's the goal you try to get what they usually tap out first this kid was a little stubborn sometimes they don't want to even tap to a girl type of thing so she got him in the choke and I know this kid Tommy I'm like, oh no, he better tap.

1:19:02Kid doesn't tap, right? So all of a sudden, now when you go to sleep, it could be like nothing, or it could be like they're having a seizure. Oh, shit. It was the latter. Oh, no, it wasn't good. Oh, no. So all of a sudden, I see the kid. So I run over there. I lift up his legs a little bit. I give him a little, like, hey, I'm in your bedroom. I make him happy. So he was a little like, Then I'm worried about her. I was just about to care. She's a little kid. So I got him okay. First of all, nobody sees it. Nobody sees it. I don't know. Nobody saw it. With all those parents there. One of the persons on the side, one of my black belts or something, I'm like, you sure?

1:19:43But anyway, so then I go to my daughter. I go, Angie, are you okay? She's fixing a ponytail. He should have tapped.

1:19:49Steph McMahon:I'm like, cold-blooded. That is a savage. I go, okay. She got in her veins. She's got in her veins. She's got that ice in her veins. So she's, yeah, she's got the right temperament for it. Oh, my God. That's awesome. It's so great. And she didn't even have to bite his ear off for anything. No. Thank goodness. Yeah, thank goodness. Still time. Yeah, but she's doing phenomenal. And so my other daughters, there's one thing that maybe, it got maybe like 50 ,000, 60 ,000 views, maybe more. I went, Longo sent this little kid over to interview me one time. He goes, oh, he's a nice kid. The mother's a little overbearing, but she's a crazy Irish lady, but you're good.

1:20:29So they asked me to come over to do an interview at my place. This is a little YouTuber kid, 12-year-old kid or something, right? Yeah. 13. So I'm like, all right, I'll give him my time. Now, like on my Saturdays, I got like 60-plus people there. It's like a seminar. Yeah. So I'm in there. I do my class. Sometimes I don't have the best night's sleep. So afterwards, I kind of want to get out. But all right, here comes the kid with the interview. I'm like, all right, let me do this for the kid. We were out. We opened up the double doors out by my nice area at my school. Now, the first, the mother's really loud.

1:21:01She's like, oh, I want to do this. There are all these kids nowadays. They need to be motivated. We want to, I want a young Cameron to, I would try to teach him about respect and about having kids not being lazy. And the first question this little shit had for me, right? Right. The first question was, all right, I'm here with UFC legend Matt Serra, and I'm 13 years old, and we managed to be the same height. What the? What? Really? Now, look, I'm— You're doing him a favor. The father's behind the camera, and they're going, dude, they set me up to get us some kind of reaction.

1:21:43Steph McMahon:Right, right. My first thought— Wait a minute. They set you up to what? like knock this kid out? Why would they put the kid in this place? They said they were fans and they loved my sense of you. Maybe they thought I'd be, but he said it like such a little shit. You'll see. So this is what happens. I'll tell you what happened. You can always find it after. Oh, you'll love it. So my first instinct is to kind of go after the father, not attack him, but kind of be like, sure. So I go, Oh, who wrote that for you? He's like, no, not me, me. So I'm looking at his father, like, I was about to say who taught you respect right here you know and then I remembered which was like the whole premise of the interview and then I remembered I got three little assassins in there right so I go you know what I answered something wrong I go you know what I can't even think right now I just want to strangle you I go but I obviously can't I go give me one second I go in there I go to my daughter Maria I go Maria my middle I go this kid is a little shit I go I want you to I go I want you to strangle him I go how do you feel about that she goes oh okay she's cool so I go back out there wait is this the one with the kid with the seizure no no that's it that's the older she's a beast she's the one who's fighting he isn't trying to kill him this is my oh okay if I put it with Angie Angie would yeah and this kid this kid's bigger than my Maria my Maria's my okay my shortest and she's but she's so technical and she's an assassin so i so i go back out there i go look i can't do anything about this i go but uh i know someone who can and you'll see in the video i go maria and you see maria like wave i go so you so if you find on my instagram i don't know if you guys found it you found it all right they'll find you'll see uh just a boy and a girl like i know it's kind of hard it's back a little bit on their knees about the why game the i go look you want to off on the feet or on the floor?

1:23:43On the knees. He chose the knees.

1:23:45Steph McMahon:And so, like, did he, was he training at all? No, I don't think he trained. He's just a YouTube interviewer. And then you were like, hey, you need to be taught some respect. Oh, yeah, he needed the answer to that. And so then he agreed? Oh, he agreed to it. These kids would do anything for views. I was going to say, they figured they would get some views. By that moment, yeah. Okay. But they didn't even care about getting strangled by a little girl. Dude, I'd be under a rock right now. What are you doing? How could you... But they don't care. Yeah. But, oh, I would love for you to see it. Oh, we're going to see it.

1:24:16Steph McMahon:We're going to see it. But I'll tell you, you're going to love it. Because I set it up, and then you hear me talking to them the whole time. And so I can't imagine being your daughter, right? And, like, if my dad came to me and was like, hey, this is what's happening. This kid's disrespecting me. I need you to come choke him out. I'd be like, so excited. A trend for a while, though, where the parents would film their kids being like, hey, somebody wants to fight me and they're bringing their kids. Will you come with me? I'm just imagining your girls. That's so funny. That's funny. I've seen that a bunch.

1:24:51But this was like more. This was legit. So, I mean, if he. I mean, this is a little boy. It's a little girl. Let's see how it goes. Oh, my God. You got it?

1:25:04Just do whatever she wants. Yeah.

1:25:11I think he actually is. His father's trying to coach him.

1:25:15Steph McMahon:Let's start again. Oh, how many rounds? No, no, no. Keep it going a little bit more if you don't mind. If you don't mind, watch here. Absolutely. You'll appreciate this. I want to show you, even if she's on bottom. Right?

1:25:34Steph McMahon:He's like... the commentary

1:25:45is it wrong yet I'm laughing so hard at this but it's awesome

1:25:51Steph McMahon:you want to make jokes oh she's got him so good that's it there you go Maria my little assassin how great was that Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. The power of jujitsu. Yes. So. I mean, she wasn't even trying hard. Oh, no. She gave it all day long. Yeah. Like nothing. Isn't that a beautiful thing? Yes. Because all day long, like my kids and my youngest, she didn't take to anything. My other two, they love dance. My Sophia, she went in at, she hated it. Two left feet. She's like, it's not for her, you know? Yeah. When I got into jujitsu, she was like a bird that fell out of a tree. She was nervous. Now?

1:26:34beating up the boys like them. Right? It's crazy. Yeah, the confidence it builds. The confidence. Oh, I have so many stories of just guys coming in, not only losing weight, but just looking like different guys. Yeah. And girls too. Yeah. The self-confidence, it's amazing what it does for people. Yeah. I mean, and again, it's like a superpower. Yeah. I mean, look at that. That's so great.

1:26:57Steph McMahon:It's really helped me get through some very tough times. Oh, I call it my therapy. Yeah. And even, you know, when I left WWE, I went through some a lot. And jujitsu was so helpful for me. It was an outlet. It was a challenge. It was a way to kind of find myself again. I believe it. You know, and it's because it is who you are out there. Like when you're in that situation, I guess you find what you're made of. A hundred percent. And it gets hard. Yeah. It's hard. It's really hard. Position, somebody's got your back trying to strangle you. And, you know. Yeah, I mean, and I've got the posh version, right?

1:27:43Steph McMahon:I have a private instructor. And I'm not rolling with beginners or, you know, or people who are. Because I think oftentimes you get hurt. You could. You know, and not because. It's just because someone doesn't know. Or. It's more so. Or you don't tap in time. Yeah. It's more so in the beginner's classes. Yeah. They'll get like strong guys. And I feel women and kids pick up to it, pick it up the quickest. Because it's, again, it's not based on strength and size. It's based on leverage technique, timing. And they don't have that strength to try to muscle things. Guys tend to, they're doing 60 % technique, then they're like, they try to use their strength.

1:28:20Right, right. Where you don't find that with kids and women. So they catch it up. They learn quick. You know? So, yeah. No, it's a beautiful thing, Jiu-Jitsu.

1:28:30Steph McMahon:So, yeah, it really is. I'm so grateful for it. Get everybody trying it. And the values. Well, and it's so funny because my coach tries to recruit everybody. Like jujitsu will save your life. And he believes it to his core. And I'm not saying. Yeah. I mean, but it's like the cure all. And it's just, it's funny because not everybody believes that, you know, but it's like, he says, if I could just get you just for like just a minute, you know, it would, it would change your life. and it certainly did me. Oh, it saved my life. Are you hearing this, Christian Holof? All right, I'm just letting you know.

1:29:06I'm trying to get this guy on the mats.

1:29:09Steph McMahon:Have you not rolled at all or done anything? No, I mean, I have. What I told him was I finally did get myself in shape, but I feel like my endurance would be garbage on myself. But that's how you build it. That's how you... Oh, he's excuse mania. Oh, my God. Excuse after excuse. One day, I'll get him. There's one thing Steph doesn't like. It's excuses. Wow. I got a new knee, man. A knee replacement. Yeah. We talk a lot about iconic stories on this show. And when it comes to sports entertainment or professional wrestling, no stories are bigger than the ones written by WWE legends. Superstars like Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock.

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1:30:39Steph McMahon:Topps is bringing you closer to the action than ever before with WWE Topps Now, Highlighting the biggest matches and milestones from WWE shows and PLEs throughout the year, Topps Now is enhancing the fan experience by connecting collectors to the superstars and spectacles that ignite their passion. Featuring stunning event-exclusive photography, each card is made for the moment. And for some lucky collectors, that moment could become the pull of a lifetime. Along with serial numbered parallels, some Topps Now releases offer a chance at rare short prints, superstar autographs, and even pieces of the mat, gear, or other items used during the featured match.

1:31:26Steph McMahon:So which moments will you collect? With each card only available for a limited time, you won't want to wait to begin your Topps Now journey. Be sure to subscribe to the WWE Topps Now mailing list on Topps.com and follow Topps on all social media platforms so you never miss a single moment. Listen, my post-fight career is, I'm so lucky because I get to spend so much time at my schools now. I teach that. Nobody in the past, because I used to be up, my fighting schedule was so different. Like, I'd meet Longo at midnight and train. and this and that. Because we're usually fighting late. So it's like, my whole schedule was crazy.

1:32:08I'd be up all night. Even when I got married in the beginning, my nosy neighbors were like, why, you know, you guys are never out of their house. Why are you watching my house? But anyway, so I'd be sleeping late and this and that. Now I do this, I teach that 7 a.m. class like three days a week and I do, you know, so I start the day sweating and on the mats. Yeah. And besides that, how fun is this? Yeah. You're doing the podcast? It is fun.

1:32:32Steph McMahon:I love getting to know everybody. Me too. Yeah. And even like I have people that like old fighters and friends that have on and just shoot. And you did the show with Dana too. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, Dana White looking for a fight. Yeah. Oh yeah. We have fun on that. Yeah. How did you meet Dana? Well, I met Dana. I remember one of my first conversations with him was at UFC 31. I'm on a stretcher. and that fight that I got knocked that I got stopped with the back fist was a good fight yeah there was I threw some jujitsu there was jujitsu that you've never seen before in that fight but he was a slippery sucker and then again it ended dramatically running into a back fist right right so I remember Dana and you didn't remember getting hit right you know what's funny I got hit twice right that's what I thought in the hospital after they go I can't believe he caught you again with it I go again I didn't remember the first one so I don't know I think I was fighting on the kind of automatic pilot after the first one.

1:33:31Yeah. And I had some tunnel vision. And that was the concussion?

1:33:36Steph McMahon:Or no? I don't know if I was concussed in that. I had a concussion in the Toughman contest. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's when I was concussed. But with this one, because I didn't, you know, it was more of just, it was more of like a flash knockdown. I was down and I was exhausted. Well, not remembering, I think, means you had a concussion. Oh, the first one. No, the back fist. Yeah. I had extreme, like, almost like tunnel vision in that fight. I was fighting, I was sprinting in that fight. I didn't, again, prior to that, none of my fights lasted more than a minute. So here I am fighting almost 15 minutes.

1:34:06And the biggest thing was the production. Like I'm used to fighting on a local show where now you're fighting, all right, the cameras are in your face. All right, we're walking in five. Everything was just so overwhelming.

1:34:21Steph McMahon:And so I think that had a lot to do with it too. To get in the mindset that it's no different than anywhere else. I did, and me sparring at Longo's, or me sparring at Henzo's. There shouldn't be anything different, but it's the unknown. But you get over that the more you do it. The more experience you get. Experience. Yeah, experience is everything. So you're on a stretcher. Oh, yeah. I remember Dana being like, that was a great fight. It was very heartfelt. It was very like he enjoyed the fight. And then I... and you hadn't met him at all? That's my first time I remember really having a conversation with him.

1:35:01While you were on the stretcher. And then after that, I'd see him after that. Did you have dreams?

1:35:07Steph McMahon:Because he was like, you know, above you. Did that really happen? No, but he was just, he was always a good guy. We always got along. And it's funny, we just kind of struck up a friendship. Yeah. And I'm the type of guy where I don't ask for nothing. You know what I mean? I know from hanging out with him his phone's ringing off the hook and who's looking for what. I'm definitely not that guy. That's a plus where I'm sure I never even asked for tickets. I have my life. I have my wife, my kids, I got my school. I got Talio's Pizza. That's my favorite pizzeria place. This pizzeria on Long Island, they import their flour from Italy.

1:35:48It's got no bleach, no bromate. Oh, it'll change your life. I could be a true Ninja Turtle now because I can eat my pizza and not be a fat guy. It is so good. Am I lying? Talios? So good. No bleach. So, you know, my life is very simple.

1:36:07Steph McMahon:And you're obviously very genuine and authentic. Thank you. So you guys just connected. Yeah, we did a little great Dana. And then we got even closer doing the... But so how did the show come to be then? He is so funny with that. Again, I do have a knack at seizing some opportunities because he hit me up and he goes, look, I'm looking to do a reality show. And the premise is I'm going to be going out looking for different lower level fights, looking for guys to sign for the UFC. And while we're in that town, we'll eat at the best restaurant and then we'll go do whatever activity they have going on around there.

1:36:47So I've done some crazy stuff. So he goes, but each time, I'm going to bring a different fighter. We want you for the pilot episode.

1:36:54Steph McMahon:Okay. So I go, alright, I'll do it. So the pilot episode, during this episode, we were watching some fights, and he goes, look, the producer, Rory, nice guy, little guy with a lisp, he goes, look, we're going to have a van to Holyfield there. He goes, please. He told me and Dana. He's a religious guy. Just please try not to curse around him. He's kind of like, he doesn't like the cursing. And so I go, No problem. I'm not an animal. I'm not a Neanderthal. So what happened was, the guy that was fighting was under a student of mine, and I didn't know him, but he was like an affiliate of mine. So I was kind of rooting for the one guy.

1:37:37The ring announcer, like their Bruce Buffer or whatever, he was drunk, he was drinking, and he starts just chiming in a lot. And then I'm saying something. He's like, yeah, I don't think you're going to come here and do this. so I started getting into a verbal now all of a sudden I'm telling this guy to go F himself now it's lying out so now I get into that with this guy F every other thing out of my mouth

1:38:00Steph McMahon:what'd you say to me? we were getting into it I ended up horrible language and then afterwards I go to Rory I go hey man my bad and I remember he goes are you kidding me that's TV gold he was so happy I go what? and then they go look you're on the show permanent no reoccurring fighter nobody can talk that how many episodes later we did it for years it still gets popped up every once in a while what's some of the craziest stuff you guys did oh my goodness I wrote a bowl which is and Dana did it too they set us up they're gonna go oh they're gonna have training bowls for us there's no freaking I would think a training bowl is worse you think the bowl knows it's a training bowl we got there we got there and they go no these are what is it PGA professional bull riding yeah these are the professional bull which is a part of TKO parent company yeah Dana has a bull or something now so I go look I came here to ride a bull I'm not doing this now 10 years ago I go I'm riding a bull I'm here to ride a bull so Dana did it too and if you watch that Dana almost got you could die it's crazy there's not many things that gave you that close to the same feeling when you're about to walk out to the cage that was one you're locked in the cage on the bowl and then they open it up what's it like right before the moment you're describing is there a countdown is there a buzzer their belt.

1:39:46It's exactly what you see on the thing.

1:39:49Steph McMahon:And what are they doing to the bulls to get them all riled up? No, I think they just are. They just are. They don't want to be in that cage. They want to just go nuts. They don't want you on your back. I thought they like, we all did it. I thought they did something else. I didn't see them doing anything. But I don't know. But I don't know. I have no idea. Mine didn't go so bad. I kind of like, I kind of landed on my feet when I fell off it. And Dana fell. But then are you like, holy shit, is it going to come at me? Yeah, I think I got the guys running out there to try to. Distract them. Yeah, but Dana, that thing almost landed on his head.

1:40:25He got thrown. It jumped. It almost stomped on him. So, yeah, that was nice.

1:40:29Steph McMahon:Did he land messed up too? Well, I think even the bucking, right? Like your neck, your back. Well, yeah, it was wild. Yeah. But that's probably the wildest thing I did. But we also, in Florida, rams and sharks. There's not many. I mean, how many people, you know, you can look down. Oh, there he is. The shark's looking up at me. I'm like, oh. I jumped out at that point. I went back in. And no cage, right? And they were doing no cage at all. Yeah. When we got there, we thought there was going to be a cage. They go, look. Oh, you thought there was going to be a cage. You thought there was going to be a cage.

1:40:59That's a big surprise. And they go, look. The guys that are running into these rednecks, they're like, look. They go, oh, the cage will hurt you more than any shark. I go, really? Are you going to bite me? Yeah. I go, but so we didn't use the cage. And they're doing everything. you're not supposed to do when you're in the they're chumming the water they're on the sides like clapping like seals they're trying to draw in sharks and one of the camera guys was on the other boat and one of the help from that they go he said that the guy goes sooner or later something's going wrong here

1:41:34Steph McMahon:you know what I mean that's what they were going for I guess I don't think they want anybody to get bit but I mean I know the producer doesn't want that no no but I mean the guys that are running it. I don't think they want that either. They'll get sued, but make us some money. What are they doing then? No kids, jamming the water. I have no clue. And I'll never do it again. What kind of sharks were they? I forgot, but... They're sharks. I literally forgot, but it's on the episode. Yeah, yeah. You can check the episode. I think it had been Tampa. We went all over. Wow. I did trapeze stuff. I did demolition derby, which was pretty cool.

1:42:06That sounds like fun. That was very cool.

1:42:08Steph McMahon:Was that like bumper cars? Yeah, but for real, that was wild. They put my face, a big head on the side of it. Really? People want to ram it more. And then I did stand-up comedy at the Laugh Factory. I'm a silly guy, but I never planned on doing that. No, stand-up's really hard. That is hard. But that was great, though. It went well. I could see it going well for you. Oh, look at this. I lost some weights. My head's like a meatball there. Yeah, this is insanity with no page. Oh, no. This was not fun at all. I mean, this was crazy. My buddy Dean Thomas. Your adrenaline must have been through the roof.

1:42:48Steph McMahon:It was just. But here's a snorkel. Yeah. It's weird, man. I remember looking underneath and seeing the shark just looking up at me. No, I can't. I'm like, what's stopping this thing from just coming up and biting me? Right. And I'm no, I'm not a graceful swimmer. I mean, I doggie paddle. I'm not. Oh, my God, really? Yeah, I'm not a big swimmer. So you're not a great swimmer and you're in this water with these sharks? What could go wrong? Oh, no, this was just, they're right there, too. It's like, what's stopping them? It's one of those things they tell you, oh, no, they're more afraid of you. Really?

1:43:18Yeah. A shark? No, this was, hey, this show. Wait, why isn't Dana in the water? He gets in. I jump out first, but then I jump back in. Dana would make fun of me back then. I was like 40 pounds heavier. He would make fun of me in a wetsuit.

1:43:39Steph McMahon:But what made you get back in the boat? I didn't want Dana and them goofing on me, to be honest. Oh, really? Okay. Then they'd torture me. They would torture me. You sensed it. Back then, I'm like, I'm not being the guy to not do it. I went back in. I plopped back in. Oh, yeah, that water is making me. This was brutal. This is a fun show, though. I got to do so many things I never thought I'd want to do. I did a bucket list I never even had, but I did a lot of things. But you did it. You know? That's very cool. Yeah, yeah, very cool. Dana what's happening the bull riding in the stand up comedy was the most not this it was scary but it wasn't like why I didn't think I was going to stay in there but the bull you know something violent is going to happen and the stand up comedy thing you don't want to be up there Tom Hanks in that horrible movie you ever see him up there somebody help me when he did that stand-up movie to have a breakdown up there.

1:44:43You know? And Dana messed with us because he had Tony Hickcliffe write for him. Oh, he had a whole stick. Yeah, he had his thing written out. He goes, yeah, he's like, I knew you'd be able to take care of it. You're like, well, thanks for the faith.

1:45:01Steph McMahon:Yeah, it's so crazy. You know? But that show actually led to me doing the UFC official podcast, the UFC Unfiltered, because I'm probably the only guy ever to say he slept in a tent with Dana White. We did a camping episode. He's not a big camper. No. Oh, no, dude, he wanted three pillows. He goes, me camping is like staying up like a Hilton or something. He's like, I don't want. And then when we were camping, he goes, look, we'd start up a podcast. I think you'd be good for it. And then I'm like, I never really thought about it. But then he goes, then he brought up Jim Norton. and Jim Norton's a I did the old Obey and Anthony show a couple times when I was fighting and I always got along with Jimmy I did Obey and Anthony yeah that was a great show it was a fun show but then they went a little farther yeah they went a little muddy shock jocks back then that was the craze that was the time that was the time yeah nobody's shocking anybody now but Jimmy I always got along with and I've been doing that show now for 10 years you know and now I just recently started up my own thing geeking out with Matt Serra with my buddy Christian Harloff.

1:46:09Alright, so what movie should you star in? Oh, you know what's funny about that? I just heard they're doing a biopic on George St. Pierre. Really? So I'm sure they're going to get some little bald actor to play me. I don't know. Hopefully they get somebody good. I hope they're going to make me just a villain. So yeah, I just found out about that the other day. That's very cool. Good for him. That's awesome. I'm very cool with George St. Piano. Yeah.

1:46:34Steph McMahon:He's such a great guy. Mark speaks so highly of him too. He's a nice guy. Yeah. I wish he was more, like, it was somebody else that was less of a nice guy that I could just, like this guy Frank Trigg, I bring up that fight all the time. I know that guy. But I mean, he's such a nice guy. Right, you don't want to talk about it. Some people tag me and stuff. I'm like, I can't keep putting stuff out with me beating him. He can do the same thing with the rematch and he doesn't, but he's such a great guy. Just recently, we did something that should be airing shortly. We shot it, like four months ago.

1:47:04They flew me and my wife out to Vegas and me and George actually watched our fights together. That's cool. It's about a new show that's coming out. I don't even know if I'm supposed to mention it.

1:47:16Steph McMahon:If not, we can cut it out. Leave it in. I don't know. Whenever it's coming out, we can time things and promote it for you and everything else. Let us know. Thank you. For sure. This is fun. No, it's so great. I'm so grateful for you to come here and be a part of this show and tell your story. I had a great time. Oh, good. I really did. If it is ending, can I just plug my... You can plug whatever you want. Matt Sarah channel, which cameras mind me, right? The Matt Sarah channel on YouTube. Spotify also. Yeah. Would you say, Christian, we're trying to get$100 ,000 by the end of the year? Let's do it.

1:47:57Let's try to do that.

1:47:58Steph McMahon:Yes. People, help me out. All right. Stephanie, thank you. You're the best. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. This was awesome. And I'm so happy when you sent me the text with you with the blue belt on. I expect another one with the, you get the purple. All right. And one day you will be. It might take me a little while. Listen, it's about the journey. It's a no rush. And one day you shall be a Jedi. I know it. Oh. A black belt. You know? That would be very, very, very cool. You know? From your lips to God's ears. Ah, so great. And I'm going to hit Mark up soon, too. Good. Tell him that I had a great time.

1:48:30Steph McMahon:And good luck to your wife and your daughters. Oh, thank you so much. My wife is officially retired. Oh, she retired. Okay, okay. Yeah, 42. That was the last one. Yeah, but she's kicked ass. And now she's full-time just, she's teaching at my school. Awesome. You know, she's teaching my daughter. So, yeah, you know, everything's great. That's so cool. Thank you. Before we wrap, I have a Fanatics question for you. Fanatics is our partner. Cool. All right. We here at What's Your Story are partners with Fanatics. They have a question for you, Matt. who in your opinion are the top three greatest UFC fighters of all time and why are they that great in your opinion?

1:49:08Steph McMahon:Oh, so tough. Wow, that is tough. Well, you have to put George St. Pierre for one. I mean, not only, I mean, after my fight with him, after beating me in the rematch, he never lost again unless you count Captain America from Winter Soldier. But he's in movies too. He's doing great. He's doing great. But, you know, and not only that, people don't make, I mean, he came back and he fought, he became a two-division champion by beating Michael Bisping. So, at middleweight, you know, so that's wild. He choked him out unconscious. So, George St. Pierre is just phenomenal. And the others, you know, it's going to be, I mean, do I, I don't have any set in stone, but I'll say Habib, you know, he's phenomenal.

1:50:01You know, not many people retire undefeated. You know what I mean? So there's a case to be made for him. Jon Jones has to be mentioned. Yep. Jon Jones is, I mean, besides the one technicality of him doing a move that's actually legal now that he lost the fight for. So you consider him undefeated. And what he did, I mean, he just, again, became a two-division champion. and he's just, I mean, he might be one of the best martial artists that ever lived, you know? And there's two. Three? That's three. You said three. Wait, did I say three? Yeah. Yeah, there's three. All right, good time. All right, fanatics.

1:50:39Good.

1:50:40Steph McMahon:Thanks. What a good time. Awesome. That's great. Thank you so much. All right, thanks for having me, gang. Thank you. Oh, this was fun. Thank you very much. Thanks so much. Thank you.